Summary

Nationwide, the number of deaths has been declining since Week 2 (January 8–14) and returned to within the usual range of fluctuation for people aged 15–64 and those aged 65 and older in Week 4 (January 22–28).Over the period from December 4, 2017, to January 21, 2018, excess mortality across all age groups is estimated at 9%, or approximately 7,400 additional deaths (estimate extrapolated to the whole of France). When analyzed by age group, the excess is estimated at 11.5% among those aged 15–64 and 8% among those aged 65 and older. At the regional level, all-age mortality continues the decline that began in January in the hardest-hit regions (PACA, Occitanie, and Île-de-France). Death rates returned to their usual fluctuation ranges in Île-de-France (in week 3) and PACA (in week 4), but remain significantly higher than expected among those aged 15–64 in Occitanie during week 4.Excess mortality across all age groups for these three regions is estimated (for the period from December 4, 2017, to January 21, 2018) at +13% in Île-de-France and +15% in PACA and Occitanie.At the European level, among the countries participating in the EuroMomo network (www.euromomo.eu), a clear increase in mortality was also noted starting in December 2017, both among those aged 15–64 and among those aged 65 and older (Figure 5). This increase mainly affected Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Scotland. These initial observations should be interpreted with caution, as the data are not yet consolidated due to the usual transmission delays. As a reminder, these analyses are based on vital statistics data and do not contain any information on the medical causes of death. According to data from electronic certification, 1,767 deaths were recorded during the 6th week of 2018 (February 5–11) (Figure 4).